If you prefer to receive these recaps weekly instead of daily posts, you can manage your subscription preferences right by viewing this email on the web. Look for your profile icon in the top right of the browser, and you can update your settings from daily to weekly (and vice versa) there. However I can get you the full narrative arc without it feeling cluttered - I'm just happy you're here!

Let's connect some dots from this week's notes...

Ron Brooks sang the national anthem from a wheelchair at center court, and a 50/50 crowd of Sixers and Knicks fans cheered nearly every other line. My wife and I had gone in with two of our nephews, running on patriotic fumes after the last month of Pennsylvania attack ads, with a mission to see LeBron. I walked out with "America in the first person" and a reason to remember the Friday before the midterms.

Quote from the Personal Archive - on what the anthem brought back at the Sixers game

America is a spirit, and it's easy to forget that, easy to overlook it, when most of what you see on TV is attack ads and disappointing adults.

A barber in a secondhand Santa suit with holes in it got pulled into the 1968 Eagles halftime show when the hired Santa slept through a blizzard, and a couple thousand snowballs later, Howard Cosell ran only that clip on national TV. Frank Olivo had worn the costume hoping the cameras might find him (they did). The people in row EE remember a very different night than the one the country got, and I love that Olivo's section cheered him when he walked back to his seat. Same city as Ron Brooks, same crowd energy, and a story that traveled a lot further than the truth did.

Quote from the Personal Archive - the Philly fan's disclaimer

So if you come to Philly for a game and you're worried about the story, just know we love our teams maybe a little bit too much.

Somebody's dad always said two things, and my notes failed to record whose dad. I'm slightly annoyed about that, but the advice is good enough that I'm sharing it anyway and thanking the universe for the assist. "Do the best you can" and "done is better than perfect" only work as a pair, and Frank Olivo's holey Santa suit is basically the pair in costume. Even this post is my own proof of concept.

Quote from the Personal Archive - on perfect, from the note without an attribution

I'm increasingly of the belief that perfect is a myth, or at least a temporal experience.

Thirty salespeople asked Brent Donnelly "what do you think about euro today?" every morning, so he sent one email instead, and that email became a list, a reputation, and eventually a book. If that's not inspiring enough, Brent also told us the story of a post about being wrong about an idea that got so much love back, it's stuck with him ever since. I introduced him to Ian Cassel because authenticity is the "first bar," and the results behind it are the second.

Quote from the Personal Archive - Brent on the second bar after authenticity

If you don't generate alpha, eventually people can get a whiff of that.

The first time Ian Cassel sat across from a CEO, his eyes were "as big as saucers," and he says it takes five or twenty meetings before that relationship becomes an advantage. He landed his own mentor the same way: two ignored messages, some homework on a stock the guy owned, and a 10 to 15 year relationship followed. I genuinely admire that his book is full of his losses, which is Brent's story about being wrong with a whole book behind it. Put them together and you get Brent's second bar, earned in public.

Quote from the Personal Archive - Ian on why he writes about his losses

You impress people with your successes, but you connect with people through your struggles.

Brian Baker starts on bass in Minor Threat, moves through Dag Nasty, and ends up co-writing on Bad Religion's The Gray Race, so the new guy playing someone else's songs becomes one of the people shaping them. I went tracing him after coming down too hard on Rise Against in our latest Music Club (credit to Guy Penn's pitch and Joseph Moore), and found that the 88 Fingers Louie guys I loved in high school built the band I struggle to hear. They even covered "I Don't Wanna Hear It," the same song with Baker's original bass line. I may never fall for where that road ends, but I finally understand how it got there.

Quote from the Personal Archive - on Baker's arc across three bands

The new guy playing someone else's songs is now one of the people shaping them.

Half the S&P Is One AI Trade. This Isn't 1999. What If the Bubble Is in the Safe Stocks?

Jack Forehand and I used the Excess Returns Weekly Wrap to revisit clips from Jay Hatfield, Kai Wu, Ted Mortonson, and Daniel Crosby on the gap between getting the market call right and earning the return. You can own several funds and still be making one bet, or pick a winning fund and lose money because you can't stick with it. We also had our usual trouble with pop-culture references.

Chip Stocks Look Cheap. AI Spending Is Surging. So Why Is Cameron Dawson Watching for Peak Earnings?

Cameron Dawson and Dave Nadig let me wander on Click Beta from Limp Bizkit to semiconductor margins to Halloween family traditions, and yes, there was a very specific Creed halftime-show tribute. Cameron's line between expensive stocks and companies overearning is the part worth sitting with.

Also this week on Excess Returns: Bob Elliott and Aahan Menon on what happens when the wealth effect fades. Lots of laughs alongside the macro in that one. AND… Mike Green returns (beyond discussing foie gras for obvious reasons, we talk passive, policy changes, and more).

When was the last time a stranger's conviction pulled you out of your own mood, and what did you do with that feeling afterward?

WHAT STORY ABOUT YOU HAS TRAVELED FURTHER THAN THE TRUTH, AND WHO WAS IN ROW EE THAT REMEMBERS IT DIFFERENTLY?

What are you holding back from sharing because it isn't perfect yet, and what would "done" look like by Friday?

WHAT ARE YOU STILL CALLING BY ITS LABEL THAT YOU'VE NEVER OPENED UP TO SEE WHAT'S INSIDE?

Where do you get your practice reps, where do you get your performance reps, and which kind is overdue?

WHO DID YOU LOOK UP TO FROM A DISTANCE THAT NOW COUNTS AS A RELATIONSHIP, AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO GET THERE?

Whatever happens after today, what do you want to remember about this week, and what will you write down now so you can?

As always, I did my part, now it's your turn to write some reflections in your own Personal Archive.

(then, be sure to let me know where you're keeping it, I'm in search of the others too)

ps. Claude helped me organize and synthesize these thoughts from the week's posts. If you are curious how I use AI, read this post: Did AI Do That: Personal Rules